GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas commemorated the third anniversary of the Gaza war on Tuesday by stating that the coastal enclave has become a symbol of dignity in the face of adversity. “The siege imposed on Gaza has failed to realize Israel’s goals when faced with the steadfastness and firmness of the Palestinian people,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a Gaza City press conference on Tuesday.

27 December 2008: The Al Ashi family
“For the upcoming anniversary of the war, me and other women who lost husbands in the attack plan to give gifts to orphans who lost their fathers during the war. The gifts will be inscribed with the words ‘On this day you are the beloved ones of your mother’. We want children to remember they still have their mothers and they will always love them”

Simply put, I hate war. I love peace, for I don’t live peacefully just like others. My youngest sister hates war too. She could never forget the sounds of American-made F16s raiding Gaza’s only Power Plant, burning it to ashes, which happened to be close to our house. I could not forget her screaming that was lower than the F16s’.

Tourist center planned at sensitive Jerusalem site (AP)
AP – A hard-line Israeli group said Tuesday it was launching plans for a new tourist center at the site of a politically sensitive archaeological dig in a largely Arab neighborhood outside Jerusalem’s Old City, drawing fire from Palestinian officials.

Nabi Saleh: World has to stop Israeli targeted shooting of activists!
Nabi Saleh youth shot with 0.22 roundsStop the Wall has sent an urgent complaint to UN Special Rapporteurs and diplomatic missions urging them to further investigate the Israeli repression of human rights defenders and to make 2012 the year in which they finally hold Israel accountable for these and other crimes. There is a clear pattern of escalation of Israeli repression developing and we call the international community to urgently take effective measures.

Palestinian Women and Children Defy Israeli Laws and Visit Jerusalem
On Saturday, December 17, 2011, several dozen Palestinian women and their children from several villages and towns in the West Bank were supported by a group of Israeli women as they visited Jerusalem, defying the arbitrary Israeli laws that make Jerusalem and the rest of Israel forbidden zones for most Palestinians living in the West Bank. Occupied East Jerusalem is held out by many Palestinians as the future capitol of their state, and it is a city of great religious, cultural, and historical significance to Palestinians. This past Saturday was a continuation of Israeli-Palestinian women actions which challenge the apartheid policies of Israeli Authorities, that have been occurring for the past year and a half.

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A unique museum has been set up on the path of Israel’s wall, which snakes through the West Bank city of Bethlehem. An initiative of the Sumud Story House, it is designed to communicate Palestinian women’s stories about the “truth of Palestinian life which the wall tries to hide and kill,” a statement said. Each panel contains a story that was either written or chosen by Palestinian women’s groups who convene at the Sumud Story House.

Twenty years of annexation and resistance
Twenty years ago, in 1991, the issues facing Silwan looked little different from today. At the time, hundreds of Palestinians belonging to left-wing movements organized a large demonstration against Israeli settlements in Silwan in response to the extreme right wing campaign to take over their neighborhoods. The demonstration was attended by many Palestinian parliament members and left-wing activists, who denounced the expansion of settlement blocs in Silwan and the danger they posed to the American-sponsored peace process – the same process that allegedly continues to this day, but has still failed to produce an independent Palestinian state. Today, settlement policies in East Jerusalem are still a major obstruction to the peace process. Settlement association Elad spearheads the settlement movement in Silwan, and is behind projects such as the archaeological “City of David” settlement project and other tourist attractions focused exclusively on Jewish history and culture in Jerusalem.

Loujain, Mohammed and Said are not soccer players in whom FIFA, the international soccer federation, takes any interest. Their travel to the West Bank and presence there are forbidden. No international academic association has stood up for their basic right to choose where they will study.

22 Dec. ’11: Video: Border policeman in Hebron cocks weapon and threatens child
On 26 November 2011, Amin al-Bakri, a resident of Hebron and a volunteer in B’Tselem’s camera distribution project, filmed a border policeman cock his weapon and aim it at al-Bakri’s son thirteen year-old son, Muhannad. Al-Bakri and his family live near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a densely populated Palestinian area with many checkpoints, most of them staffed by the Border Police. Security forces regularly patrol near the Palestinian homes, creating great tension. Palestinians report long delays at checkpoints and settler attacks against them, sometimes while the security forces stand idly by.

NABLUS (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority official responsible for monitoring settlement activity in the northern West Bank said a recent settler rally targeting his work would not stop him from exposing settler crimes “to the whole world.” Dozens of extremist settlers rallied on Sunday on a main road west of Nablus, holding signs of protest against PA official Ghassan Daghlas.

Youth arrested in al-Ein Street
Israeli forces arrested a local youth from Al-Ein Street in Silwan at 1am, 24 December. Muhammad al-Taweel was taken by Israeli forces as he stood beside his family’s car, say eyewitnesses.

9 Palestinians arrested every day in 2011
According to a report by researcher Abdul Nasser Ferwaneh, 3312 Palestinans were arrested by the Israeli military in 2011. This breaks down to 276 arrests a month or nine arrests a day.

Page by page, Marwan Barghouti`s anti-war tome walked out of prison
Joseph Dana – TheNational.ae – In his book smuggled out of prison, Barghouti sets out to demonstrate how Palestinians can achieve a meaningful non-violent resistance against the military court system. In addition to the practical information of surviving within the Israeli prison system, he details his arguments for Palestinian political unity as a means of resistance to Israeli occupation.

Israeli Member of Knesset of the Likud Party, Danny Danon, presented a draft of a new legislation that calls for firing any member of Knesset who refuses to recognize Israel as a “Democratic Jewish State”, or supports organizations that are considered “hostile and terrorist”.

Israel’s Propaganda Minister: Arabs are a deplorable nation
Israel’s Propaganda and Diaspora Minister, Yuli Edelstein, said the Arabs are a “deplorable nation.” His spokesman: He meant every one of them. Israel’s Propaganda and Diaspora Minister, Yuli Edelstein, told a crowd in a public diplomacy event in Or Yehuda that “as long as the Arab nation continues to be a deplorable nation, which continues investing in infrastructure for terrorism, education to hate, and welfare for the families of shaheeds (martyrs), there will be no peace.” It can be seen in his Facebook page, here (Hebrew). The Hebrew epithet used by Edelstein to describe Arabs – נפסד – is rather difficult to translate: I put it as “deplorable” but it can also mean “morally bankrupt.” I phoned the minister’s office for comment, and asked his spokesman: “Are you aware of the fact there are some 80 million Arabs in the world, from Sudan to Syria?” He replied: “Yes, there are – and the minister meant them all.”

The popular Israeli web-based satirical show LatmaTV has released a musical video containing crude anti-Muslim stereotypes and mocking Europeans as “dummies” for supposedly allowing their countries to be taken over by Islam and turned into “Eurabia.” In one sequence, a Norwegian father tells his blonde daughter about Muslims: “When they rape you don’t object for that is politically incorrect.” Fantasies about people of color raping white women remain one of the oldest racist tropes and were frequently a pretext for lynching black men and boys in the United States. This hate-based fear has led in Israel to measures to “rescue” Jewish women from dating Arab men.

Minister Yishai: Soccer also segregates sexes
Interior minister says discussion surrounding issue has been blown out of proportion; ‘why aren’t women, men playing together in Maccabi Tel Aviv? You can claim that they also exclude women,’ he says.

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Dozens of students affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement demonstrated in Gaza on Saturday against the way organizers of the Pan Arab games in Qatar depicted a map of Palestine. In the opening ceremony of the event some weeks ago, the West Bank and Gaza Strip were highlighted in yellow on a large-scale projection of the map of Palestine.

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Major General Nidal Abu Dukhan has been sworn in as commander of the Palestinian National Security Forces, replacing Thiab al-Ali. Palestinian national forces spokesman Bilal Abu Hamid said Abu Dukhan was sworn in on Monday during a ceremony at the forces headquarters in Ramallah. The incoming commander, who has served as a military intelligence chief, said he would do his utmost to protect the accomplishments achieved by the forces.

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday that there will be no return to 1967 borders and that settlements are not an obstacle to peace. Lieberman made the remarks while addressing a conference of Israeli ambassadors. The controversial foreign minster said that the Palestinians “refuse” to negotiate and are trying to internationalize the conflict, Haaretz reported.

Lieberman to Europe: Israel has nothing to apologize for
Following strong European condemnation of settlement activity and rightist violence, FM says Israeli democracy ‘has nothing to be ashamed of’ and will know how to handle ‘price tag’ assailants. ‘Obstacle to peace not Jewish settlements, but Palestinian policies,’ he adds.

Bahrain medics recall jail ‘horror’
Shiite Muslim doctors, out on bail in Bahrain pending retrial for their role in pro-democracy protests, look back with horror at months of torture and demand a neutral hearing. “I can’t talk,” sobbed consultant paediatrician Nader Dawani, recounting how he was forced to stand up for seven days, while being beaten repeatedly, mainly by a female officer. “She was the harshest. She used to hit me with a hose and wooden canes, many of which broke on my back,” said the frail 54-year-old man. “They attempted to insert a bottle in my anus,” he recounted.

Sadr bloc calls for early elections in Iraq (Reuters)
Reuters – The head of the political bloc of anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Monday for new elections in Iraq after the biggest crisis in a year saw Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki move against two senior Sunni rivals.

US Marine: “I was the aggressor” against “the resistance fighters in Fallujah”
It has been seven years since the 2nd siege of Fallujah — the American assault that left the city in ruins, killed thousands of civilians, and displaced hundreds-of-thousands more — the assault that poisoned a generation, plaguing the people who live there with cancers and their children with birth defects. It has been seven years and the lies that justified the assault still perpetuate false beliefs about what we did. The American veterans who fought there still do not understand who they fought against, or what they were fighting for.

Saudi Arabia: Save Convicts from Amputation
The Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia should void a sentence to amputate the hands and feet of six stateless people convicted of armed robbery, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Saudi Human Rights Commission. The sentence constitutes internationally prohibited torture. (Beirut) – The Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia should void a sentence to amputate the hands and feet of six stateless people convicted of armed robbery, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Saudi Human Rights Commission.

Armenian Genocide as Political Payback Against Turkey, Richard Silverstein
One of the sacred lessons of the Holocaust in contemporary Jewish life has always been that it is such a transcendent historical event that it must not be exploited for political gain by anyone, Jew or gentile. This, in essence is one of the sine qua nons of the ADL, which makes a point of taking to task demagogues of the world who engage in such cheap behavior. My problem with that organization is that such denunciations seem reserved far more often for the political left than the political right. But that’s a subject for another time.

Israeli lawmakers discussed the possibility of officially recognizing the Armenian genocide on Monday in a move that would add further strain to tense ties with Turkey. A parliamentary committee headed by Alex Miller of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu – the party headed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman – stressed Israel’s “moral” obligation to officially recognize the Armenian tragedy as a genocide. The committee did not, however, make any decisions or issue a declaration, and will meet again on the issue in the future.

The Muqata: Facade of a Palestinian State
Amid talks of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) so-called state-building continues unabated. Lacking real political power, the illusion of authority is created through the spatial organization of state structures, like the network of buildings known as the muqatas, serving as PA headquarters across the West Bank.

Veteran US journalist asks why Israelis can’t accept that the Palestinians elected Hamas
The veteran American journalist Helen Thomas has questioned why Israelis cannot accept that the people of Palestine elected Hamas in a democratic poll. She made her statement in an interview published in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, during which Ms Thomas responded to Israel’s listing of Hamas as a “terrorist organisation”. She is, she said, against violence, but can understand Hamas’s desire to regain what was taken from them, a reference to the loss of Palestine by the creation of the state of Israel.

With the recent banning of certain art, that of children or anything coming from the Palestinians, we hear this outcry of “political,” and baseless accusations about the art being done by adults, etc. One does not need to wonder why a message in art of this sort comes from the Palestinians, because it is the truth in pictorial form, what needs to cease is the continuous activity of the murderous colonial settler state of Israel – than all grasping for “political” accusations by the guilty dominant would not be necessary.

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